Years ago I had just bought a middling steel frame - my first "decent" frame. It was sitting on the counter in the shop while the shop guy was doing something. Another customer stopped, and not realizing that I had just bought it, picked it up and remarked to me "It's pretty heavy". I replied with something along the lines of "Yeah, but it'll do for now". He realizes that the frame's mine, and gets really apologetic about dissing it (although he was correct about its heft). I quickly set him straight - no offense intended, none taken. In any case, it was way lighter than the anchors I had ridden up to this point, but I couldn't understand why he thought I would be offended - it's not like I had built the frame - I was just buying it.
I've had people (bike folk and "civilians") comment on how pretty that bike was, but I think that was mainly the color (Ice Blue De Bernardi). A few people have commented on the Litespeed, but its bare metal is too "industrial" to be called pretty, and it's too low-tech for bike folk to get excited about it. No-one's ever disparaged one of my bikes, but it wouldn't bother me if they did - I know my bikes are cool.
Last edited by Litespud; 10-08-18 at 11:44 PM.